That's What
by In Darkness Is Light
Summary: [“What?” she finally asked him.] [...“That’s what” he replied as the last firecracker went off with a big bang.] IkutoChika oneshot fluff.


Disclaimer: I do _not_ own Digimon.  


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"Come on Ikuto!" Chika yelled grabbing his hand as she looked at her watch, "We're going to be late!"

Trailing behind her, Ikuto sighed. How did he get himself into this?

**Flashback**

"_Ikuto!" Chika called out to her friend. "Wait up!"_

_Ikuto turned around to see Chika running to him, obviously trying to catch up. With a sheepish smile he stopped and patiently waited for her to fall in step with him._

"_Sorry Chika, "he apologized, "I thought you had already left school."_

_Catching her breath she smiled at him and replied, "It's ok! I actually did a bit earlier, we had a supply teacher for gym and I didn't want to stay."_

_Confused he asked her, "Then why were you coming from the direction of school?"_

"_I went to go pick up this!" She told him, pulling out a pink flyer and shoving it in his face._

"_A piece of paper?" he raised an eyebrow at it._

"_No, silly!" she giggled. He could be so stupid at times. "It's an advertisement for the annual festival in the park!"_

"_Festival? In the park? Which park?"_

"_You know, the park with all the hills and that big oak tree! The one where they always have those pretty tulips in the summer!"_

"_Oh, yeah," Ikuto said, remembering what she was talking about._

"_We should go! It'd be so much fun!" Chika stated excitedly._

_Seeing her so happy and full of energy, Ikuto smiled. "Sure," he agreed, "Why not? When is it?"_

"_Yes!" Chika squealed, delighted that he had agreed, and gave him a hug. "It's this Saturday from 5-10pm!"_

"_Wow, that's kind of late. Do you think your parents will let you go?"_

"_Oh please! The park is pretty close to my house, and we're in grade 8! Plus, I'll be going with you, so they'll let me go!"_

"_Because you're going with me?"_

"_Yeah, they trust you."_

"_Ok then! Let's go!" he exclaimed, smiling at her._

**End Flashback **

Arriving at the park, they noticed some snack and games stands were put up, carnival style. Still dragging him, Chika hurried over to the hoop toss game. She finally let go of Ikuto, letting him rest on a chair, while she attempted to throw little rings onto bottles to win a prize. Discouraged when she hadn't achieved her goal minutes later, she sulked off to find something else, leaving Ikuto just sitting there.

The boy's face saddened considerably when he had seen Chika so upset, and therefore decided to try his hand at the game. Having more experience with throwing things at a target from his days with his boomerang, he faired considerably better than she had. At the end, he had gotten enough points to win a big purple lion plushy toy.

Now, the only problem was finding Chika. In all her disappointment, she had taken off and now Ikuto was desperately trying to locate her.

Through the crowd he called out to her. "Chika! Chika! Chika! Chi—" he stopped when he saw her parents approaching him.

"Hello Ikuto!" Sayuri smiled down at the young boy.

"Hello Mr. & Mrs. Daimon!" he replied.

"Say now," continued Suguru, "Where's Chika? Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

Thinking quickly, the boy said, "Yeah, she was. I mean is. She just went to go to the washroom and told me to wait here for her," he smiled at them convincingly.

"Oh, ok. Well, tell her we'll see her back at home tonight ok? Have a good time you two!" Sayuri told him before walking off, arm-in-arm with her husband.

Ikuto sighed. 'Oh man, that was close' he thought. Luckily, just then he spotted Chika, sulking off in the direction of the cotton candy stand. "Chika! Hey, wait up!" he called out to her. Luckily, she heard him and waited for him to catch up to her.

"Oh, sorry Ikuto," she apologized, "I forgot I left you there!"

He grinned at her. "It's ok Chika! I found you didn't I? Oh, that reminds me," he said as he pulled the lion from behind his back, "this is for you."

Squealing in delight, Chika took the fuzzy creature from him happily. "Aw! Thank you Ikuto! How did you know I wanted this one?" she asked as she gave the boy a giant hug.

Blushing, Ikuto replied, "Well, I just thought it was the nicest one there."

"Well, thanks" she smiled. "Want to go get some cotton candy?"

"Sure, let's go!"

The two walked over and got two "cotton candy on a stick". Walking around some more, they decided to check out a few rides before the fireworks started. The first one they checked out was the spinning strawberries.

They sat in a strawberry shaped compartment and turned it around via a steering wheel in the center of the compartment. Chika had always loved these kinds of rides. She was always ready to go fast and feel dizzy. Ikuto on the other hand, was not so enthused. He had been doing fine during the beginning but Chika had started spinning their wheel really fast, making Ikuto feel dizzy and nauseous. By the end of the ride, his face had turned a shade of sickening green as Chika once again apologized to the poor boy.

Around 5 minutes later when he was feeling much better, he dragged her to the roller coaster. He loved roller coasters because even though they went really fast, they didn't make him dizzy or nauseous. Chika on the other hand wasn't look so excited. Timidly, she walked behind Ikuto, making him wonder what was wrong with her. Inwardly shrugging, he brought her to one of the carts and let her go in first. Seeing her growing increasingly anxious made him worry a little. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"I'm scared of roller coasters," she admitted, looking frightened. She looked over the entire track and saw many steep hills and a couple of loop-de-loops.

Making her look over at him, Ikuto kindly told her, "Don't worry. I won't let anything bad happen to you. If you get scared, you can hold my hand," he smiled at her.

Realizing what he just said he added, "uh, well, you could also hold the bar tighter or just scream, if you want".

Chika knew what he had meant, but still giggled at his nervousness. Just moments later the carts started moving and Chika previous look of happiness turned into one of horror. At first they were just going on a plateau, not making that much speed for her to actually begin worrying. However, soon they came to a hill and the carts trudged slowly up the steep hill, making Chika nervous as to how abrupt the hill would go down. Tensing, she gripped the metal bars in front of her tighter, and shut her eyes.

As they reached the top of the hill and were about to go down, she peeked through one eye and immediately regretted that she had. It was _steep_. Not just regular steep, but very steep and there was a long way down. They'd pick up a lot of speed. Trying to ignore her mind running at a mile a minute with worry and anxiety, she shut her eyes tightly again and gripped the bars even tighter. In her mind she saw only bad images of what could happen if there was something wrong with the ride.

Noticing her tensing, Ikuto moved his left hand on top of her right hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Hey, didn't I promise that I wouldn't let anything happen to you?" he asked her rhetorically, smiling at her reassuringly. Ok, that was it. Chika's heart had melted. Ikuto had been an increasingly sweet guy and she couldn't take it anymore, he was too cute.

Forgetting where she was and what was happening, she let go of the bars and gave Ikuto a hug. However, just moments later she was reminded that she was going down a steep hill in a fast moving roller coaster. When she got back to reality, she was terrified and held on to Ikuto tightly by the waist as she screamed in fright. After a few more hills, Chika was no longer scared of roller coasters but found them quite fun.

When the ride finished it was already 8pm. The fireworks were going to start at 9 so the two kids decided that they had time for one more ride before then. This time they chose something that both would enjoy, a nice relaxing ride. Thus, they headed for the Ferris wheel. It was a larger wheel than at normal carnivals. It had about 50 compartments and they seated 2 people each. It was a high of about 100 feet and from the top you could see the entire neighborhood and downtown.

As the two teens got into a compartment, they were amazed at how beautiful everything looked from so high up. The city was a big grid of lights and buildings, leaving for a glowing effect. When they're compartment reached the top, they both gasped in awe. The city was visible in all its entirety and man, was it ever beautiful. The entire ride lasted about 20 minutes and when it was finished the teens exited their compartment, intent on using the time they had to find a place to sit and watch the fireworks.

The fireworks, as always, were going to be near the river. Along and around the river, many families and couples had already set up their seats and mats on the ground.

"Damn," Ikuto cursed as he saw the masses of people already sitting, "we should've gotten here earlier."

"It's ok, let's just look around a bit more. There has to be a seat somewhere," Chika reassured him.

They walked around a bit more until Chika saw something. "Hey look!" she called out, "There's a hill over there! Do you see it?"

Straining his eyes, Ikuto saw a hill just north of the lake. "Yeah, you want to try going there? Maybe there are a few seats."

"Sure," Chika said and so they began walking in the direction of the hill. When they got close they had to go through a mini forest. 'Perfect,' Chika thought, 'no one's probably there'. And how right she was. When they arrived at the top of the hill, they were both surprised to see that the only company there was the birds in a big oak. Sitting down, they realized what a great spot they had snagged. The hill was just high enough so that they could see the lake and the fireworks perfectly. There was very little noise up here, and there weren't any other people to avoid. They leaned against the oak tree and just talked for 10 minutes until they saw the first firework go up.

Down below, there were 'Oohs' and 'Ahhs' heard from the crowd as a giant gold firecracker exploded into a rainfall of glitter. The fireworks were truly amazing and had a variety of sizes, effects and colors. Some were green and made loud noises when they exploded but others were red and acted almost like flare gun signals.

The fireworks show was going to last an hour and it had only been 20 minutes, but Ikuto's attention was fully focused on something else, Chika. He stared at her intently as her face lit up every time another firework was set off and exploded. He could tell she was really enjoying herself and it made him happy to take note of that.

Chika looked to the side and in her peripheral vision she could see Ikuto looking at her. Mentally, she wondered why. Was there something on her face? Was he watching something else? Or was it the answer she was afraid to ask herself the question to; did he like her?

She pretended not to notice and diverted her attention back to the fireworks, temporarily forgetting about him staring at her. Throughout the show she caught him doing this a few more times, and finally, just when the fireworks were about to end, she turned to him.

She found him staring at her again. "What?" she finally asked him.

Leaning over, he kissed her lightly and sweetly. "That's what," he replied as the last firecracker went off with a big bang.


End file.
